Tag: MSFT

The Companies that will Benefit the Most from the New Tax Law

The new tax law has passed and is waiting for the signature of the president. This change will provide a huge economic benefit for many corporations, especially for those that keep money overseas, due to the repatriation tax holiday.

Although there will be benefits to having plants and facilities in other countries, it is expected that most companies will prefer to have most of their operations in the United States. Many U.S. citizens are now starting to benefit from the corporate tax cut such as the AT&T (T) $1,000 bonus for all employees.

From an investor standpoint, the fundamentals for certain companies should improve dramatically which should help the stock price. Here are some of the corporations with the biggest cash holdings overseas.

Apple (AAPL)  ~ $215 billion to $252 billion depending on what source you use and what day of the month it is

Microsoft (MSFT) ~ $128 billion

Cisco (CSCO) ~ $68 billion

Oracle (ORCL) ~ $48 billion to $54 billion

Alphabet / Google (GOOG) ~ $32 billion

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) ~ $41 billion

Amgen (AMGN) ~ $36 billion

Watch the performance of these stocks during the new year. Speaking of new year, Happy New Year!!!

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Third Week of May

Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called ‘Buying Dividends,’ also commonly referred to as ‘Dividend Capture.’ This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend.

This technique generally works only in bull markets, and can work in flat or choppy markets, but you need to avoid the technique during bear markets. In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can’t sell the stock until after the ex date.

The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend in the near future. The list contains many dividend paying companies, lots with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, the quarterly dividend amount, and annual yield.

Amgen Inc. (AMGN) 5/15/2017 1.15 2.59%
Consolidated Edison Inc (ED) 5/15/2017 0.69 3.42%
Target Corporation (TGT) 5/15/2017 0.6 4.04%
Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) 5/16/2017 0.39 2.16%
Honeywell International Inc. (HON) 5/17/2017 0.665 1.91%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found here at wstnn.com. (If you have been to the website before, and the latest link doesn’t show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out some of the other high yield stock lists at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WStNN.com. Most of the lists are free.

Dividend definitions: Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Monthly Dividend Stock List

Record date: the day when you must be on the company’s books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks at two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Trivia: The iPhone Name was Originally Owned by Cisco, Not Apple

Here is a bit of financial trivia for you.  Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), released its iPhone on Monday, December 18, 2006, which was a phone that connects to a home wireless network for making phone calls through the Internet using the Skype service. Skype was originally owned by eBay Inc. (EBAY)at the time and is now owned by Microsoft (MSFT).

It had been anticipated that Apple Computer Corp. (AAPL) would be using the iPhone name back then, but it had been registered by Cisco in 2000. The iPhone trademark is now owned by Apple.

More info about the “first” iPhone release can be found here, an article from bizjournals back in 2006.

Top Untaxed Foreign Earnings Stocks

The United States has one of the highest tax rates in the world for corporations. In the past, the U.S. Government might have thought that this was a great source of income for the government, yet the risk of unintended consequences has taken place.

Companies that have earnings in other countries have decided to leave those earnings there in order to avoid the U.S. taxation, creating what is called untaxed foreign earnings. If the money is brought back to the United States, it becomes taxable at 35%. Over one third of the income is a pretty big chunk of money to be removed from the corporate coffers.

So what are the unintended consequences? Companies that are forced to leave their profits overseas due to the oppressive taxation, can’t use that money to hire more Americans, can’t use it to improve machinery and plants, and can’t use it to pay out higher dividends which could benefit income investors and pension plans. It also can’t be used to buy out smaller companies. Basically, it prevents money from flooding the US economy.

The current administration has proposed a 10% tax on repatriated funds, which would be a huge benefit to many corporations, primarily in the areas of technology and health care.

So there may be a play in some of the stocks that are holding huge amounts of money in other countries. For example, Apple (AAPL) holds more money outside the U.S. than any other publicly traded company, somewhere around $200 billion (give or take $25 billion; when you’re talking about that much money, who’s counting).

Other companies with a lot of funds held overseas include:

Alphabet [Google] (GOOG)

Cisco (CSCO)

General Electric (GE)

IBM (IBM)

Intel (INTC)

Microsoft (MSFT)

Oracle (ORCL)

Pfizer (PFE)

It may be a while before the untaxed foreign earnings tax break takes place, but when it does, the benefits to the companies should be swift.

Disclosure: Author owns AAPL and MSFT